Marine turtles are threatened globally by increasing coastal development. In particular, increased artificial lighting at the nesting beach has the potential to disrupt turtle breeding success. Few published data exist regarding the behaviour of the flatback turtle Natator depressus, a species endemic to Australia, in response to artificial light. Given the ongoing industrialisation of the Australian coastline, this study is a timely investigation into the orientation of flatback hatchlings exposed to light glow produced by lighting typically used in industrial settings. We recorded the orientation of hatchlings at the nesting beach on Barrow Island, Western Australia, exposed to 3 types of standard lighting â high-pressure sodium vapour (HPS), metal halide (MH), and fluorescent white (FW)âat 3 different intensities. The light array was positioned either behind a high dune (producing a high, dark silhouette; 16Â° elevation), or in a low creek bed (producing a low silhouette and bright horizon; 2Â° elevation). At medium and high light intensities of all 3 light types, hatchlings were significantly less ocean-oriented when exposed to light at 2Â° elevation compared to 16Â° elevation. This difference remained with glow from low-intensity MH light; however, there was no significant difference in orientation of hatchlings exposed to low- intensity HPS and FW light glow at either elevation. Our study emphasises the importance of horizon elevation cues in hatchling sea-finding. Since all species of marine turtles show similar sea-finding behaviour, our results have important implications for management of lighting adjacent to turtle nesting beaches in Australia and elsewhere, as coastal development continues.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is gaining recognition as having an important anthropogenic impact on the environment, yet the behavioural and physiological impacts of this stressor are largely unknown. This dearth of information is particularly true for freshwater ecosystems, which are already heavily impacted by anthropogenic pressures. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) is a species of conservation and economic importance whose ecology and behaviour is well studied, making it an ideal model species. Recent investigations have demonstrated that salmon show disrupted behaviour in response to artificial light; however, it is not yet clear which physiological processes are behind the observed behavioural modifications. Here, two novel non-invasive sampling methods were used to examine the cortisol stress response of dispersing salmon fry under different artificial lighting intensities. Fish egg and embryos were reared under differing ALAN intensities and individual measures of stress were subsequently taken from dispersing fry using static sampling, whereas population-level measures were achieved using deployed passive samplers. Dispersing fry exposed to experimental confinement showed elevated cortisol levels, indicating the capacity to mount a stress response at this early stage in ontogenesis. However, only one of the two methods for sampling cortisol used in this study indicated that ALAN may act as a stressor to dispersing salmon fry. As such, a cortisol-mediated response to light was not strongly supported. Furthermore, the efficacy of the two non-invasive methodologies used in this study is, subject to further validation, indicative of them proving useful in future ecological studies.

Light pollution contributes to the degradation and reduction of habitat for wildlife. Nocturnally nesting and hatching sea turtle species are particularly sensitive to artificial light near nesting beaches. At local scales (0.01â0.1 km), artificial light has been experimentally shown to deter nesting females and disorient hatchlings. This study used satellite-based remote sensing to assess broad scale (~1â100s km) effects of artificial light on nesting patterns of loggerhead (Caretta caretta), leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) along the Florida coastline. Annual artificial nightlight data from 1992 to 2012 acquired by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) were compared to an extensive nesting dataset for 368, ~1 km beach segments from this same 21-year period. Relationships between nest densities and artificial lighting were derived using simultaneous autoregressive models to adjust for the presence of spatial autocorrelation. Though coastal urbanization increased in Florida during this period, nearly two-thirds of the surveyed beaches exhibited decreasing light levels (N = 249); only a small fraction of the beaches showed significant increases (N = 52). Nest densities for all three sea turtle species were negatively influenced by artificial light at neighborhood scales (<100 km); however, only loggerhead and green turtle nest densities were influenced by artificial light levels at the individual beach scale (~1 km). Satellite monitoring shows promise for light management of extensive or remote areas. As the spectral, spatial, and temporal resolutions of the satellite data are coarse, ground measurements are suggested to confirm that artificial light levels on beaches during the nesting season correspond to the annual nightlight measures.

Artificial light at night is one of the most apparent environmental changes accompanying anthropogenic habitat change. The global increase in light pollution poses new challenges to wild species, but we still have limited understanding of the temporal and spatial pattern of exposure to light at night. In particular, it has been suggested by several studies that animals exposed to light pollution, such as songbirds, perceive a longer daylength compared with conspecifics living in natural darker areas, but direct tests of such a hypothesis are still lacking. Here, we use a combination of light loggers deployed on individual European blackbirds, as well as automated radiotelemetry,to examine whether urban birds are exposed to a longer daylength than forest counterparts. We first used activity data from forest birds to determine the level of light intensity which defines the onset and offset of daily activity in rural areas. We then used this value as threshold to calculate the subjective perceived daylength of both forest and urban blackbirds. In March, when reproductive growth occurs, urban birds were exposed on average to a 49-min longer subjective perceived daylength than forest ones, which corresponds to a 19-day difference in photoperiod at this time of the year. In the field, urban blackbirds reached reproductive maturity 19 day earlier than rural birds, suggesting that light pollution could be responsible of most of the variation in reproductive timing found between urban and rural dwellers. We conclude that light at night is the most relevant change in ambient light affecting biological rhythms in avian urban-dwellers, most likely via a modification of the perceived photoperiod.